My suggestion is the GOM player (yes, that’s its name).  To download you get to visit one of my favorite sites: www.download.com  .  It is sponsored by CNET, one of the original tech magazines in San Francisco, and it’s very good.  Here you can download tons of software that is partially or completely free.  Some downloads are trial versions: you get to use it for thirty days, and then you either pay or it won’t work (Same sort of deal with demos).    Some downloads are shareware: You get the full version, but the company asks for donations.  And some are completely free.  GOM is one of the free ones.

Do an onsite search for “media player” or for “GOM”.  When the list shows up you can click on the download arrows.  Follow the directions for download and installation.  When installing you will encounter a window that asks what kind of files you want GOM to be the default player for.  Choose only the option that contains the “FLV” suffix, or GOM will open everything for you.

(Note: if you are interested in other programs from “download.com”,  be very careful to read the CNET reviews and the user comments.  Some bad stuff gets on the site.  Personally I only use downloads that get a good CNET rating.)

Now if you look at the file icon for your video, it should look like an orange balloon foot (or something like that).  Double click the icon, and your video will play.  Buttons at the bottom right will let you show the full screen version.  You can now play any flash video without connecting to the internet.

But what do you do if you only want to show part of the video?  That’s for next time.

If you want to check out other options for your browser, then click on “Tools - Add-ons”. Click the “Extensions” tab at the top, if it is not already selected (you will see a list of all the extensions you currently have). Then click the “Get Extensions” hyperlink at the bottom right of the window to go to the menu.

There are a lot of cool things for Firefox here, but what you are looking for is “Video DownloadHelper 3.03. You can do a search for it, or you can just click here and I will send you directly to the link.

Click the “Download” button and follow the instructions. When you are done, read through the directions on the webpage that pops up when Firefox restarts. It will help you.

You should notice three colorful balls rotating on your toolbar. When there is nothing to “capture” the orbs are grey. When something on the page can be captured (Pictures, videos, etc.) you click on the object you want, click the menu arrow next to the orbs, and choose your option of what you want to save. Then you will choose where to save it and click “Save”.

Now you have downloaded the file. But when you try to view it, nothing happens. Stay tuned for Step 3 in the next article.

Step One - Install Firefox

Firefox is a free web browser, like Internet Explorer. But Firefox has several advantages over IE.

• It is designed to show web pages exactly the way people designed them. Sometimes IE has the text scattered in strange places, because the dimensions the web designer used don’t match what IE thinks they should be. Firefox manages to keep everything where it is supposed to be
• It is faster, and much less susceptible to hacking and viruses. IE is the big boy on the block, and that’s who the hackers attack.
• Most Important - Firefox has some wonderful attachments not available on IE. One of them is a program to download Flash video (the main medium in youtube type sites).

So to download Firefox, click here, or go to www.mozilla.com/firefox. Follow the directions for download and installing (although in some cases you may need your site tech or administrator to do the install for you).

For Tulsa teachers there is one more step. Any web browser has to detect the proxy settings for the system. Go to “Tools - Options”. Click on the “Advanced” button. Click the “Network” tab. Click the “Settings” button. Then select the option “Auto-detect proxy settings for this network”. Click “Ok” for everything. Then the browser will work on the TPS network.

I think you’ll like Firefox. Next time we’ll talk about the video download attachment.

But there is a new skill I think you might want to have, particularly if you are working with interactive whiteboards.

Have you ever found this great video on the internet, but found that you had to be connected to the internet to play it?  And dealt with the problems of bad connections, buffering, and high volume use that makes your video play like a car with one sparkplug working?  Don’t you wish you could play the video from a file on your computer, without the internet?

It is a four-step process.  I will go over it with you in the next few posts.  Stay tuned…

You now have an excuse: “Sorry I’m late.  I overslept because I’m trying to become smarter.”

 Melissa Hicks, media specialist at Remington passed this link along.  I was stunned by the difference just a little sleep makes.  Check it out.

 This video has been making the rounds, but it still is sobering.  Take a look.

Thanksgiving is coming, and you want something to teach, instead of connect-the-dots and word searches.  Try some of  these:

Plimoth (Yes that is the olde way of spelling it).  If you click here for the online resources, you can download a research lesson plan appropriate for 3^rd to 5^th grades.  History, primary sources, fact or fiction, and several other skills are covered.  Make sure to check the teacher’s guide.  From the main page there is an educator’s resource section, of which my favorite is the page of old maps.

Mayflower History.  Loads of resources, mostly to be read.  It does show animated maps of the voyage.  One thought provoking section is the collection of individual histories of members of the colony.  It might be an interesting project to have students report on the histories of some of the lesser-known members.

ABCTeach has loads of project and activity ideas for K-12.

Emints has portals to lesson plans and websites for Thanksgiving, the Plymouth colony, and the Mayflower.  The Mayflower section includes schematics of the ship.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

 In any case, the following link was sent to me by Melissa Nally-Hicks, media specialist at Remington Elementary.  Monty Harper (a children’s songwriter) has written a song for the Oklahoma Centennial: “1907″.  Look for the mp3 link to the right to listen to the song.  It also includes a lead sheet (lyrics and guitar chords).  Give it a try.

 I will be looking up some other links for Oklahoma’s birthday.  In the meantime, remember the official state website.  It has several good educational activities and resources.

Here’s a few lesson plans and activities from the state department of education. 

This page gives you a few more resources.

Here’s a list of Centennial websites, although it is 12 months old

Happy Birthday, Oklahoma!

The first step is to take digital pictures of all your students and download them to your computer (I use head and shoulder shots instead of full body). You don’t have to worry about pretty as long as it is natural.

Next open up Excel. Normally Excel will not tell you where the edges of the paper are, so do this: (1) Click “View” from the tool bar at the top of the page. (2)Click “Page Break Preview”. Your page will shrink to nothing, but don’t panic. (3) Click “View” and “Normal”. Voila! You have the normal page, but now there are dotted lines in certain places. These are the edges of the page, and you can ensure that all your notes fit onto one page.

If you are brave and want to draw some furniture into the room, Click “View”, “Toolbars”, “Draw Tools” (unless your toolbar is already open at the bottom of the screen, like my computer). The tools will draw lines, boxes and circles. If you are trying this part, draw your objects first because drawing them around your pictures will place them on top of the pictures. There is a fix for this, but let’s starrt simple.

Hopefully you have some experience inserting pictures into a documents (”Insert”, “Pictures”, “…from File”). You’ll notice that the pictures are too large. There are two ways to deal with this: (1) Click on the picture, grab a corner, and resize it manually. (2) Right click on the picture and click “Format Picture”. Click the “Size” tab and change the height of the picture (.5 to .75 is suitable). I like this method because I can ensure that all the pictures are the same size.

Now drag the pictures to the appropriate spots. Type the names in the boxes underneath the picture. If you had tried this in Word, placing the text would have been troublesome.

Be nice to your substitute; Give it a try!